Chris Selley’s Full Pundit: Rob Ford, who has no ideas, meets Dalton McGuinty, who has no money

Rob Ford, who has no ideas, meets Dalton McGuinty, who has no money

In search of political leadershipJan Wong, writing in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, explains why there’s no reason for Torontonians to be particularly afraid of gun violence, and simultaneously more or less urges them to be. It’s rap music’s fault, incidentally — partially, at least — because the videos encourage gangsters to hold their guns sideways, which makes it impossible to aim them properly. Wong seems to think the Aurora, Colo., shooting may also have something to do with the entertainment industry. Presumably she’ll get back to us when she has an idea what that might be. But preferably not.

The Toronto Star‘s Martin Regg Cohn argues that a “failure” of this afternoon’s meeting between Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty would feature “carping, posturing, stereotyping, scapegoating … and trash-talking” about urban gun crime. And that will be a tempting outlet, since, as Cohn says, McGuinty really can’t do much about these issues. (Ford wants $10-million for police.) “Success,” on the other hand, would involve “restarting a conversation with people at street level who live with the threat of gangs”; “reassuring the general public that it’s not in the line of fire”; and “offering a hopeful tone.” Nice idea. But Ford was seems to have considered that approach and rejected it.

Sun Media’s Lorrie Goldstein doesn’t hold out much hope for political leadership on this front: “Ford’s not a consensus builder, visionary or inspirational leader,” he says; he has “muttered clichés about Toronto being a safe city;” and his idea of deporting gangsters is (says Goldstein, charitably) “a head scratcher.” McGuinty, meanwhile, “sees the gang problem, as he does every problem, as something best addressed by throwing our money at it” — and because he’s thrown so much money at so many things, he doesn’t have any left to throw at this. The federal Conservatives, meanwhile, “are strong on law-and-order” — but “we could throw every gangster in jail tomorrow,” Goldstein argues, and it wouldn’t “address the societal ills breeding the next generation coming up behind them.”

“Rob Ford’s unfitness to serve as mayor has never been more obvious,” the Star‘s editorialistsproclaim. We’d love to be able to take issue with that, but that radio interview … well, we just can’t. This is a low point, no question.

Citizenship be damned: Omar Khadr was “never the kid next door,” the Sun Media editorialists proclaim; and thus all due dithering, sorry diligence, must be done before we take him back from Guantanamo. They “suspect [they] know why the U.S. is reluctant to comply with [Public Safety Minister Vic] Toews’ demand” to see tapes of psychiatric interviews Khadr received: Khadr may be “more dangerous than ever, his loyalty to the jihad never more profound, and his time to motivate the terrorists of tomorrow never more optimum.” Right. And that notoriously soft-on-terror President Obama desperately wants him running around just north of a mostly undefended border in an election year. Makes sense to us!

The National Post‘s Jonathan Kay argues it wasn’t “wrong” for the Conservatives to take into account many Canadians’ anti-Khadr sentiments in deciding how and when to repatriate him. But he says “the time for doing so was 17 months ago” — not now, after we agreed to take him back, at a time when we run a serious risk of cheesing off “our largest friend and ally.” Indeed. Likewise, we would argue that now — not next time we’re in a situation like this — would be the proper time for the Conservatives to deratify the UN child soldier protocol. They clearly don’t agree with its contents. Why should they be hamstrung by them in dealing with any future Canadian child soldiers?

Stephen Harper “exercises near-total control over his government because it’s in his nature and because he can,” says the Globe‘s John Ibbitson; and he has two major aims: “to entrench the Conservative Party as a political institution”; and “to make Canada a fundamentally more conservative place.” The latter piqued our interest. You often see it argued that Canadians are becoming more conservative, and it isn’t usually very convincing. Here it turns out that the “fundamental conservative principles” around which Harper hopes to “cement a new, stable coalition of Westerners and suburban Ontario voters” are “sound finances, free trade, safe streets, and an alliance-based foreign policy.” So … yeah, not really all that conservative at all. It’s certainly true, as Ibbitson suggests, that Harper could chug along in power for years to come. But we don’t see how he’s significantly less likely than his predecessors to be defeated or to “bequeath defeat on his successor.”

That said, is it possible that Albertans are becoming more liberal? The Calgary Herald‘s always unpredictable editorialistsdemand photo radar be installed on certain roads in order to protect Buster Bear, Reddy Fox, Rocky Chuck and all the other hinterland creatures from “yahoo” drivers who refuse to obey the posted limits or learn from other drivers’ misadventures.

And Calgary has banned the sale of shark fin! The Edmonton Journal‘s editorialists are all for “maintain[ing] the relative civility of humane food production,” and the apparently widespread practice of cutting off the fins and throwing back the sharks to die is, as they say, ghastly. But “these controls are functions of federal and provincial governments,” they note. “Edmonton city council has chosen not to rule on this contentious issue and that seems wise.”

The Vancouver Sun‘s Daphne Bramham notes that while the legal status of polygamy seems to have been decided, no action has yet been taken against the polygamists in Bountiful. And nobody seems willing to tell her why.

Duly notedBack to Colorado, in a rather odd piece in the Globe, John Allemangnotes that the state is a study in contrasts — featuring everything from the staunchest of evangelicals and libertarians to Aspen’s elites — and has had “to face down the serial realities of Aurora, Columbine and JonBenet Ramsey.” As a result, he suggests “it must be hard to grow up in Colorado with a sure sense of who you are or what you might become, who’s a friend and who’s an enemy.” We suspect Coloradans might disagree with that: The vast majority are not killed in mass shootings, after all, or garrotted as children in their basements.

Postmedia’s Andrew Coyne notes evidence that spending too much time sitting down is terribly unhealthy, and that even exercise can’t mitigate the risk. “We congratulate ourselves on banning jumbo soft drinks, when our chairs are the deadlier foe by far. We pass laws requiring seatbelt use, when sloth kills four times as many people as traffic.” It’s time to get serious with the chair and sofa industry, says Coyne — a tax, perhaps, or a class action suit. “Perhaps you will say that’s going too far. Tell it to the 5.3 million dead.”

Laura Robinson, writing in the Star, introduces us to this Olympics’ big feminist scandal: The exclusion of “our very best canoeists” because “they have vaginas, not penises.” It’s headed to the courts, naturally.

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